-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Having established itself as Apple 's top tablet competitor by going smaller and cheaper , Amazon will now go head to head with the category-defining iPad on its own turf .

Even as Google 's new Nexus 7 challenges the Kindle Fire for dominance in the small-tablet category , Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Thursday introduced a new , 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD .

That pits the new device , which will ship in late November , against a device with which Apple has , thus far , squashed all direct competition . No tablet that has tried to match the iPad feature-for-feature has gained more than a token foothold in the market .

So , how do the latest version of the iPad and the Kindle Fire HD stack up ? Because only a few people have gotten their hands on the new device , some questions ca n't be answered yet . But here 's a look at what we do know so far :

Price

The Fire comes out way ahead on this one , as is to be expected from Amazon , which has targeted customers looking for the basic features of a tablet but not willing to pay Apple 's heftier price tag .

For $ 499 , the cost of the lowest-end iPad -LRB- the 16GB , WiFi-only model -RRB- , a buyer can get a 32GB version of the Fire HD with a 4G LTE connection on an upgraded cellular network .

The 16GB version of the Fire comes in at $ 299 , or $ 200 less than the comparable iPad .

Size

While Amazon obviously closed the gap significantly , the iPad still has a bigger screen than the Fire .

Apple 's iPad screen measures 9.7 inches diagonally , while the Fire is at 8.9 inches . That 's less than the difference between the screen sizes on the iPhone 4S and the larger Samsung Galaxy S III smartphones . -LRB- There 's speculation the iPhone 5 will have a larger screen -RRB- .

But competition between Apple and Amazon could heat up on another front if rumors that Apple plans to release an `` iPad Mini '' turn out to be true .

Display

Both tablets feature high-definition screens , although the details vary .

The iPad 's `` retina display '' featured a total of 3.1 million pixels , with a resolution of 2,048 by 1,536 . By contrast , the Fire HD measures 1,920 x 1,200 pixels , with custom features designed to reduce glare and improve color saturation .

Both Apple and Amazon boast that the resolution on their tablet is so sharp that it 's impossible for the human eye to discern individual pixels .

Data plans

Until now , the Kindle Fire has been a WiFi-only device , and some of its new models remain that way . But Bezos announced that the top-end version of the Fire HD is available in 4G .

The plan is offered at an attractive price of $ 50 a year . But that price gets you 250 MB of data per month -- not a lot for a device designed in large part to stream movies and other media .

It was unclear Thursday what the charges will be for going over the allotted data .

The $ 50 is well under what AT&T and Verizon charge for a year of data on the iPad .

When the first iPad launched , AT&T offered data plans starting at $ 15 per month , or $ 180 per year , for 250 megabytes of data .

Currently , Verizon offers a variety of plans , from 1GB of data per month for $ 20 -LRB- or $ 240 per year -RRB- all the way up to a massive 8GB per month for $ 80 -LRB- $ 960 -RRB- .

AT&T offers a 250MB per month plan -LRB- the same as the Fire -RRB- for $ 15 , or $ 180 per year . For $ 5 more , customers can get up to 2GB per month .

There are obviously lots of permutations of plans customers can seek out for iPads , based on carrier and special offers . It 's safe to say Amazon 's is going to be less expensive , although it offers a minimal amount of data .

Apps

It 's hard to compete with Apple 's App Store .

There are more than 225,000 apps designed specifically for the iPad . Many work to take advantage of its display and screen size . Add the more than a half-million apps that run on mobile devices and you 've got a lot from which to choose .

Amazon , of course , likes to play up the movies and books that make up its universe of content -LRB- and the sale of which make Kindle prices possible -RRB- . Bezos lumped together more than 22 million movies , TV shows , songs , apps , games , books , audiobooks and magazines available from Amazon 's store .

He showcased a few , nice-looking new apps . But while the Kindle Fire runs a modified version of Google 's Android operating system , it only runs apps available from Amazon . That cuts the number available down to several thousand -- more than enough for many users , but nowhere near what the iPad offers .

@highlight

Amazon 's Kindle Fire HD goes head-to-head with the iPad

@highlight

The Fire wins on price , coming in $ 200 less than Apple 's cheapest tablet

@highlight

But there are 225,000 apps designed for the iPad , a dominating number

@highlight

Both tablets offer high-definition displays